English language macro skills of freshman vietnamese students in selected colleges in bac giang city input to intervention measures

i THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines ENGLISH LANGUAGE MACRO-SKILLS OF FRESHMAN VIETNAMESE STUDENTS IN SELECTED COLLEGES IN BAC GIANG CITY: INPUT TO INTERVENTION MEASURES A Dissertation Presented To The Faculty Of The Graduate School Batangas State University Batangas City, Philippines In Partial Fulfillment Of The Requirements For The Degree Of Doctor Of Philosophy Major In English By: NGO THI THU HUONG April 2015 APPROVAL SHEET Số hóa Trung tâm Học liệu – ĐHTN http://www.lrc.tnu.edu.vn ii THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines This dissertation entitled “ENGLISH LANGUAGE MACRO-SKILLS OF FRESHMAN VIETNAMESE STUDENTS IN SELECTED COLLEGES IN BAC GIANG CITY: INPUT TO INTERVENTION MEASURES” prepared and submitted by NGO THI THU HUONG in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy major in English has been examined and is recommended for Oral Examination MATILDA H DIMAANO, Ph.D Adviser PANEL OF EXAMINERS Approved by the Committee on Oral Examination with a grade of DR AMADA G BANAAG Chairman DR MARIA LUISA A VALDEZ Member DR FELIX M PANOPIO Member DR MYRNA G SULIT External Representative Accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy major in English Comprehensive Examination: _ Date MATILDA H DIMAANO, Ph.D Dean, Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences ABSTRACT Số hóa Trung tâm Học liệu – ĐHTN http://www.lrc.tnu.edu.vn iii THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam Title BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines : English Language Macro-Skills of Freshman Vietnamese Students in Selected Colleges in Bac Giang City: Input to Intervention Measures Author : Ngô Thị Thu Hương Degree : Doctor of Philosophy Major : English Year : 2015 Adviser : Dr Matilda H Dimaano Summary Knowledge regarding the four-macro skills that are needed by learners to communicate effectively which include listening, speaking, reading, and writing is of vital importance Consistently seeking improvement along these macro skills will contribute to the self-development, effective communication and success in many different environments and contexts of the learners Macro skills integration in lessons should come naturally from the teacher as well as the listener When one listens, writing opportunities emerge; when one reads, opportunities for speaking emerge Learners are motivated to have opportunities relative to learning the skills to allow the skills subconsciously to grow naturally within them Số hóa Trung tâm Học liệu – ĐHTN http://www.lrc.tnu.edu.vn iv THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines This study focused on the Freshman Vietnamese students’ English Language Macro Skills among selected Colleges in Bac Giang City It utilized the descriptive method of research The subjects of the study are composed of 299 first year college students taking up Basic English course in the three colleges in Bac Giang namely Ngo Gia Tu College, Industry and Technology College and Vocational College The data gathering instruments used in the study are the documentary analysis and teacher-made test Findings of the study revealed that the learning contents of a General English course offered to Freshman students in Bac Giang was determined through literature and detailed outline of the course General English I for Diploma Degree Program with English Language as field issued by the Ministry of Education and Training of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam It is given four units credits with 60 hours- time allocation for the first semesters English I has the learning objectives of providing students with guidance in the study of English Alphabet, vowels, consonants, stress, intonation and basic structures; developing their ability to use these structures in different contexts; enriching their knowledge in vocabulary and grammar and improving their ability to communicate effectively by providing comprehensive re-enforcement activities in the four macro-skills of English language In addition, the course outline of General English I course is divided into Số hóa Trung tâm Học liệu – ĐHTN http://www.lrc.tnu.edu.vn v THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines five units where each unit has six components namely: grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, speaking and listening Each unit also comprises overall objectives In unit I, the overall objectives are for the students to get to know to each other and introduce themselves and other people In Unit II, the overall objectives are for the students to be able to ask for personal information, talk about their family, family members, class, jobs and engage in conversation about class, friends and family members For Unit III, the overall objectives are for the students to be able to use the present simple with personal pronouns to talk and to write about work and daily activities; and to tell time and date For Unit IV, the overall objectives are for the students to use the present simple, to talk and to write about shopping, likes and dislikes, free time and leisure activities and for the students to be familiar with situations in an English class Regarding Unit V, the overall objective is for the students to describe the place where students live and for them to ask and to give directions, as well as to report In speaking, the focus is on taking about stories and practice police interview while in listening the focus is on listening for specific information Further, results of the study as to the level of students’ performance in the macro-skills in reading, writing listening and speaking the English language were all of average level of the given student population There were significant Số hóa Trung tâm Học liệu – ĐHTN http://www.lrc.tnu.edu.vn vi THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines relationships existed in the students’ performance among the macro-skills in English language It was only the reading versus listening pair that showed no significant relationship Students encountered difficulties in comprehension for macro skills in reading and listening; while sharpening writing skill is the difficulty students encountered for macro kill in writing; and pronunciation for the macro skill in speaking The most serious among the difficulties in macroskills are those that pertain to comprehension skills in reading and listening The intervention measures proposed were composed of select strategies designed to improve skills where students demonstrated poor performance The following are the recommendations of the study that English teachers have to be encouraged to provide more language exercises for their students to improve their language deficiencies; proposed intervention measures must be utilized to validate their usefulness; similar studies on English language macro skills be conducted on universities to determine their students language performance ACKNOWLEDGMENT The researcher sincerely expresses her heartfelt gratitude to the following who contributed much in the accomplishment of this piece of work Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry, Viet Nam and Số hóa Trung tâm Học liệu – ĐHTN http://www.lrc.tnu.edu.vn vii THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines Batangas State University, Philippines for giving me the opportunity to finish my Ph.D degree Dr Matilda H Dimaano, Dissertation Adviser, for her patience, guidance, encouragement and supervision in the writing this research Her enlightening suggestions and detailed comments have made this dissertation a reality Without her help, this study would not have been possible Dr Corazon Cabrera and Dr Myrna Sulit, external panel members for their excellent comments and detailed suggestions; Dr Felix M Panopio, statistician, for his kindness in sharing his mathematical expertise; Dr Amada G Banaag and Dr Maria Luisa Valdez members of the panel for their contributions in providing insightful suggestions; Dr Remedios Magnaye, the recording secretary for writing down all the comments and suggestions of the panel; Bac Giang Ngo Gia Tu College, for the financial assistance and moral support; The teachers of English Department from three Colleges: Bac Giang Ngo Gia Tu college, Industry and Technology College, Vocational College in Số hóa Trung tâm Học liệu – ĐHTN http://www.lrc.tnu.edu.vn viii THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines Bac Giang province for their valuable insights that inspire her to carry out this research endeavor; and The first year college students from three the Bac Giang Colleges for their cooperation in accomplishing the questionnaires The researcher is also very grateful for the wholehearted support and love of her husband – Mr Trong and her three children Quyen, Diep and Quan along with all the members of her family during the writing process DEDICATION This piece of work is wholeheartedly dedicated to my loving and eversupportive husband, Mr Trong and to my children Sincere thanks are also afforded to all the members of my family and to all colleagues in Bac Giang College who made this work possible Số hóa Trung tâm Học liệu – ĐHTN http://www.lrc.tnu.edu.vn ix THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines Ngô Thị Thu Hương TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TITLE PAGE ………………………………………………………………….i APPROVAL SHEET …………………………………………………………ii ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………… iii ACKNOWLEDGMENT …………………………………………………… vii Số hóa Trung tâm Học liệu – ĐHTN http://www.lrc.tnu.edu.vn x THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines DEDICATION ……………………………………………………………… ix TABLE OF CONTENTS x LIST OF TABLES xiii LIST OF FIGURES .xiv CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM Introduction Statement of the Problem …………………………………… Scope, Delimitation and Limitation of the Study ……………10 Significance of the Study ………………………………… .11 II REVIEW OF LITERATURE Conceptual Literature ……………………………………… 13 Research Literature …………………………………………… 64 Synthesis ……………………………………………………….70 Theoretical Framework……………………………………… 75 Conceptual Framework ……………………………………… 78 Hypothesis ………………………………………………… 81 Definition of Terms …………………………………………… 81 III RESEARCH METHOD AND PROCEDURE Research Environment 84 Số hóa Trung tâm Học liệu – ĐHTN http://www.lrc.tnu.edu.vn xi THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines Research Design …………………………………………… 87 Subjects of the Study ……………………………………… 87 Data Gathering Instrument ………………………………… 89 Data Gathering Procedure …………………………………… 92 Statistical Treatment of Data ………………………………… 93 IV PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA…………………………………………………………… 94 V SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION Summary of Findings ………………………………………… 144 Conclusions………………………………………………… 156 Recommendations…………………………………………… 157 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………… ………….158 APPENDICES A Questionnaire on English Language Macro-skills 169 B Validation Letters of Teacher-Made Test and Survey Questionnaires for Students and Teachers ……… 178 C Request Letters (1) To the Head of Institution of Vocational college .181 (2) To the Head of Institution of ITC 182 (3) To the Head of Institution of BG Ngo Gia Tu College 183 Số hóa Trung tâm Học liệu – ĐHTN http://www.lrc.tnu.edu.vn xii THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines D Documentations (1) Photographs of the Study Sites….………… ….… .184 (2) Validation of Questionnaires in Batangas State University ……………………………… 185 (3) Administration of Teacher-Made Tests in Bac Giang Colleges…………………………………… 186 (4) Administration of Questionnaires in Bac Giang College 187 (5) The Researcher with the Heads of Bac Giang Colleges Retrieving the Response Letters to Requests………… 188 E Psychrometric Conversion Table 189 CURRICULUM VITAE LIST OF TABLES Table Title Page Distribution of Student Respondents in the Three Colleges .88 Performance of Students in the Skill Area of Reading Test 100 Performance of Students in the Skill Area of Writing Test 105 Performance of Students in Listening Skills 108 Số hóa Trung tâm Học liệu – ĐHTN http://www.lrc.tnu.edu.vn xiii THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines Performance of Students in Speaking Test………… 110 Percent of Each Pair of Test Groups 112 Difficult Items in the Teacher-Made Test ……… … 114 Most Difficult Items in the Teacher-Made Test 119 Skills to be Used as Bases for the Design of Intervention Measures 121 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Title Page Research Paradigm on the English Language Macro-Skills of Freshman Vietnamese Students 80 Số hóa Trung tâm Học liệu – ĐHTN http://www.lrc.tnu.edu.vn xiv THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam Số hóa Trung tâm Học liệu – ĐHTN BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines http://www.lrc.tnu.edu.vn ... Philippines : English Language Macro- Skills of Freshman Vietnamese Students in Selected Colleges in Bac Giang City: Input to Intervention Measures Author : Ngô Thị Thu Hương Degree : Doctor of Philosophy... Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines This dissertation entitled ? ?ENGLISH LANGUAGE MACRO- SKILLS OF FRESHMAN VIETNAMESE STUDENTS IN SELECTED COLLEGES IN BAC GIANG CITY: ... Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines This study focused on the Freshman Vietnamese students? ?? English Language Macro Skills among selected Colleges in Bac Giang City